Just installed Mandriva Linux with KDE on my laptop connected to Telewest 512k cable via a Motorola Surfboard 5100i cable modem (USB or Ethernet). This is connected throug it's ehternet port to the laptop via a Sitecom LN-029 USB to Ethernet adapter. Web browser in use are FireFox and Konquror.

The installation (very nice) set up the system excellently and found all hardware including the USB adaptor which it has set as ETH0.

However the effective download speeds are much slower than with my Win2k Pro setup (same system, different H/D). When browsing the web, there is a long lag before a connection is established with a site, then downloads is fast but sporadic, with very long pauses. Are there any firmware updates or drivers I need?

Also, are there any plug in available for linux versions of firefox to play QuickTime or Windows Media files?

I'm not sure that it's a FireFox problem, as I have the same problem with Konqueror. The actual data transnfer speed I get are fine, typically around 65 to 80 kbps. However the problem is when looking up domains, the browser takes 30 sec or so to look up a domain, wheras on Win2k (using Firefox) the responce is in most cases just a few secs at most.

not sure what it is in Mandriva, but in ubuntu or SuSE,
1. sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases
2. Find the line: alias net-pf-10 ipv6
3. Edit this to: alias net-pf-10 off
4. Save the file and reboot
Your browsing should now be a lot faster.

Also: Here's something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!